Could it be a Rose?
by ineedhelpwithmylifern
Summary: He was alone. He was separated from his friends. He was hurting. And these stupid petals didn't help his problem. At all. (canon divergent from ep. 85, plasmashipping, hanahaki)
1. Chapter 1

**I posted this on Ao3, but I personally am really proud of it, so I'ma post it here. Heh.**

 **The first part will be up now, and I'll post the second part a little later. ^^**

 **Just assume that when Zane and Kai were put in the arena, that they didn't reveal their powers.**

* * *

Jay was worried. The red petal in his hand was mocking him.

 _He'll never love you, and that's why you have this disease._

Every time his thought of the Master of Fire, he'd cough up a petal. One of Wu's old scrolls told him it was called Hanahaki.

 _This is your fault and you can't fix it._

He exited their small hideout, panicking. He had been attempting to seem cool all day, so he wouldn't seem worse than usual. He had said he accepted it. Although, he did not enjoy their predicament, being stuck in the Oni and Dragon Realm.

 _And here, you can't get treatment._

Jay hated the idea of removing the flower, and his feelings for Kai, but if he didn't he could would probably die. But it was impossible here to take it out, with no hospitals and such. They couldn't remove the flower here, He'd have to die- Or the other ninja would have to confess his feelings for him.

 _That wouldn't be possible, you're nothing._

He looked up at the moon, wondering what it would be like if the fire ninja did like him back, maybe- A coughing fit began. A single red petal fell to the ground before him. A rose? That's what he suspected. The coughing got worse and worse the more times it happened, and every time he thought of Kai.

 _You're going to die out here._

Jay knew that that was most likely true. But he pushed the voice to the back of his head, hoping to ignore it. Sitting down, he watched the stars until he fell asleep on the ground, right there.

* * *

Dawn was silent. The realm was quiet, their crash site empty. The Bounty still in shambles, Jay awoke on the ground. His neck was sore and and he had to pop his shoulder. There was a slight chill to the morning, the few petals around him frosty, their blood-red color taunting him.

The lightning ninja rubbed his eyes, the sun in the realm finally rising. He brushed away the offending plants, most of them blowing away in the almost eerie breeze. One stayed, sticking to his hand. He took a moment to pick it off and send it into the breeze, after the other few petals.

He stood up and made his way back to the Bounty, the chill getting through his gi. He waled up to the other ninjas and the young Wu, looking down, avoiding eye contact. Especially with Kai. _No more petals right now._

"Where were you?" Cole asked, Wu beside him. Their young master had seemed to have grown up over night, he was no longer a toddler, but now a child, probably a little younger than Lloyd when they had first met them. "You weren't with at all overnight."

Jay hugged himself before looking out to where he fell asleep. He pointed to the spot where he was all night, not speaking.

Kai grunted quietly and Zane spoke. "Did you sleep out there?" His question was only answered with a shrug from the lightning ninja. "That isn't good to sleep away from a heat source in this kind of cold. Add that to sleeping on the ground in general, and that isn't very good for your health."

Jay's head whipped around to face them with a reply, but it was cut off by a fit of coughing. Nothing happened. _No petals this time._ He mentally sighed, eyes looking to the ninja and master by him. Cole rolled his eyes, Zane was slowly nodding, and Kai. The fire ninja looked genuinely concerned, maybe he-

Before he could cough again, and before the chance of a petal, Zane spoke up. "You're sick. If you would like, I could scan you and see what's-"

"No!" He protested, waving his hands back and forth in a feeble attempt to stop the nindroid from actually scanning him at all. "I'm fine! I'm fine! It's just a cold or something! It's okay! I'll be fine!" He stepped back, worry encasing his thoughts. Zane could probably tell that I have it. They shouldn't worry about me.

The team gave him odd looks before going on. He knew they were still worried, but he brushed it off. He wouldn't think of it. He had to find a way to survive the stupid flower.

* * *

Cole and Wu had gone off to look for food. That was fine. It just meant they had to stick together a bit more. He decided to entertain himself by pretending that a piece of wood that was a game console. It got his mind away and his eyes off of Kai.

Speaking of the fire ninja, he and Zane were working on some kind of communication device so they could contact Ninjago. Won't work. No chance. He thought, quicky correcting himself. Positive, or we won't escape. Positive...

He acted as though he wasn't listening. He really was. The worry was so much.

"So, whatcha doin Jay?" Kai's question surprised him, but he hid it as well as he could and spoke quickly.

"It's my new video game console. I built it myself." He groaned at a 'loss' before immeadiately continuing, thankfully getting Kai off of his case.

"Uh-huh... Is it working?" The fire ninja had moved over to Zane.

"It's working!" The nindroid exclaimed, the crackling in the machine turning to garbled words.

"Really? Jay? Do you believe it?"

"hm. Ain't no video game console without unlimited plays!" He had to ignore Kai. He just had to.

"You hear that?" The fire ninja spoke up.

"On my count-" The radio crackled, the words coming through.

"From Ninjago?" Jay was now near the others, watching the device. It could be possible.

Another voice broke through. "Have mark? Waylay."

Zane shook his head. "It doesn't sound like it's coming from Ninjago. It's possible we've intercepted a transmission originating from this island."

Jay's eyes widened. No. "Who do you think it is?" A wave of panic washed over him. "Oni?"

"Mark too. Waylay. Waylay now." The radio signal was stronger now.

"Who's Mark? And what's a waylay?" The fire ninja looked to the ice elemental, concern dotting his gaze.

Zane answered quickly. "A mark is another way of saying "target." And a waylay is an ambush."

Kai stepped back. "No... Ambush? They're talking about us. We gotta get out of here!"

Jay looked at Kai. "Where?"

Kai's head turned and he made eye contact with Jay. "Anywhere! Run!" Jay froze, the eye contact was enough to make him start to cough. "Jay? Are you alright?"

The lightning-holder looked up. "Go. I'll be fine." He was out of breath, and a petal was lodged in his throat. If he could just sacrifice himself...

"No! We have to go!" Kai grabbed his arm. "And I'm not leaving you behind!" They began on their dash, soon catching up to Zane. "Where are they?"

"I don't have a visual. Is Jay-" A chain wrapped around the nindroid's legs, pulling him away.

"Zane!" Jay yelled, tripping and falling, rolling into the shade underneath a rock. A small cave. From his spot he could see Kai.

Kai was standing in the middle, the fog floating in on him. "Jay! C'mon, you have to be okay, I can help you, we have to run-" A chain wrapped around him, pulling him away from the area. "No!"

The area grew eerily quiet. With the others gone, several vehicles rolled by, shaking the ground. They had missed him.

Jay was alone.

* * *

He spent a while in that hole, only a few petals to give him comfort. Eventually, he got out, the sun halfway up in the sky. He rubbed his eyes, beginning his trek across the almost endless desert. His gi torn, the lightning ninja wiped his brow, looking for food. There were dragons, oni, and whatever had taken Zane and Kai. He shuffled along, watching for tracks, or something.

Jay had cursed himself multiple times for walking away from the trail in the first place. And he wasn't going to walk back at this point. He kicked some dirt up, some of it flying into his face. Muttering, he wiped it away as best he could, feeling a slight scratch in his throat.

He pushed on, the sun sinking down to the line where the land meets the sky. It was becoming night, and he was lost.

A beach was his resting place, the cold back. Sand was in his hair, and his clothes, and it wasn't pleasant. Jay shook as much as he could off, the morning peaking once more. It had begun to rain, and he knew he had to find any tracks before they were washed away. He began his trek as soon as possible, petals following him as he walked away.

* * *

Kai and Zane were stuck. In a cage. Above an arena. They had 'defeated' the dragon from earlier and now they were watching an empty arena, waiting for another dragon that they could challenge.

Cole and Wu had been there for a little while, and had been pushed away in the crowd. So here they were, stuck.

And then there was the whole Jay deal. The boy had seemed to be sick. Staying away from and ignoring his team. And, now he was most likely lost, nowhere near any of his team. The lightning ninja was in danger with this, the oni and dragon were inhabiting the realm. What if he was hurt?

The rain had begun, drops landing around, on, and in the cage.

Kai hugged himself. This was not good.

* * *

Jay was running. Well, he had been running until he had grabbed onto a dragon. More like the dragon had grabbed him, but, whatever. He was not holding on to the dragon's leg for dear life, getting farther and farther out by the second. The lightning ninja assumed that the dragon had started the rain, it seemed to be controlling it at least.

When the dragon dipped low enough, he let go, tumbling to the ground. It hurt him, but it was nothing, looking up and seeing that there were tall pillars with what looked to be dragon skulls on top. The petals were getting worse. He was worrying about the other ninja, especially Kai. The fire elemental. The one he had fallen so helplessly in love with. The one these stupid petals were for.

Before he knew it, he was coughing up petals by the minute, the flowers falling around him, piling their way up. He passed out, the coughing ceasing. The petals still stood around him.

Little did he know, some dragon hunters had found him, along with a very concerned Cole and Wu.

* * *

"Kai! Zane!" Kai woke up to Cole yelling up at their cage. "We found Jay!"

Kai scrambled to the edge of the hanging prison. "Really?" Where was he? He just had to be okay...

"Yeah," Wu said, "But, he's not doing well. He was found almost dead really far away."

"How would that happen?" Zane asked, "He was sick before, maybe it was that?"

"I don't know, but he was surrounded by-"

"Wu, we have to get going. The people are filing in. I have no idea what they are doing, but staying over here and talking to them could blow away our cover." They walked off, leaving Zane and Kai alone.

"What are they doing?" Kai whispered to himself, "And what was Jay surrounded by?"

Iron Baron's voice boomed around the arena. "Now, you may wonder why we are back here so soon... But we found ourselves something quite interesting on our last hunt, didn't we?" Cheers were heard around them.

The man stepped off of his chair. "We found a new petal child to play with. Quite interesting, I do say so myself. And nice to know, not one of us, no one-sided love on our part. This will be fun." He nodded to someone, signalling to send the new 'friend' up.

The platform rose, revealing their 'petal child.'

"Jay!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2, and final one.**

* * *

Jay could tell, he could feel, when the place the people had put him on, the platform, had begun to rise. He could tell when it stopped, he could hear the cheers around him. He didn't bother to look around. It hurt.

"Jay!" He heard that- the voice was familiar- "Jay! Up here! Jay!" The yelling was loud and it sounded desperate, it pained Jay to know who it was. And when Zane joined in there would have to be a reason they weren't running down to them. Was he in a cage? Were they in a cage? Was it both? He didn't bother to look up. If he saw Kai, that would not be good. Jay curled in on himself.

"Now, here is our poor, poor, Petal Child." A voice, loud and commanding, boomed over the cheers, stopping the cheers. Petal Child? "If you don't know what I mean, you must be new here, aren't you? A petal child is what we call one who is affected by the curse of the petals, a terrible, terrible thing, I tell you. Love and all that stuff, not usually the main thing with us Dragon Hunters, eh?"

Cheers erupted from around him once more. Jay pushed himself up, looking around. He was in an arena. There were tons of people in the seating, all cheering for what he had. Glancing, he noticed that Zane and Kai were hanging in a cage, by the person that Jay assumed had been the one that had seemed so demanding and loud.

"Jay!" Kai was yelling over everyone again. "Jay! Please!" The lightning ninja had made eye contact with the fire ninja, resulting in another fit. Kai was still yelling, Zane joining in as well. Jay had to look away. The arena was filled with these so-called 'Dragon Hunters,' each of them sporting excited, or worried, looks. But why? When he noticed Cole and Wu, it took him a moment to register that it was them. They had face paint on, concealing their identities, but not enough for Jay to see that they were the people that he was looking for.

He had caught Wu's eye, a surprised look on his face. The young master poked Cole's arm, who was looking at the cage containing the other ninja. Grabbing his attention, Wu pointed to Jay, who had looked back to the cage.

"Well then," The man with the peg leg -which Jay had just noticed- spoke again, "You all know the small tradition we have when someone has this... Curse... But, of course, I think I have a feeling who it might be. Someone grab the red one."

With a wave of his hand, a few people went straight to the cage and roughly grabbed Kai, ripping off his handcuffs, and keeping him restrained, despite the protests. The fire ninja was thrown into the arena, yelling and spitting curses. Landing on his side, he groaned, standing up quickly and running straight to Jay.

"Jay!" Kai enveloped the blue ninja in a hug, not intending on letting go anytime soon. When Jay began to cough, he tried to pull back. Kai, being the person he was, didn't let him go, leaving the petals the lightning ninja was coughing up to fall down his back. "Are you okay? Did Iron Baron do anything to you? What's the petal curse-" He cut himself off when he was the petals scattered around, blood spattered around and with them. "Hanahaki... Jay? Who do you love- Nya? We'll get you back- I promise, I'll try-"

"Kai-" Jay cut the fire ninja off. "I don't love Nya anymore."

Kai began to panic more than he already was. "Then who? Is it Cole- cause I will kill him if he is and you die on-"

"Kai!" Jay yelled, drowning out the cheering in the stadium, all of it coming to a screeching halt. "It's not Nya, it's not Cole, it's not Zane, it's not Skylor. It none of them. Kai, I'm sorry, but it's you. It's been you for some time now, especially after Nya broke up with me. I've been getting caught up in your smile, your eyes, your stupid hair. But I keep thinking that it doesn't matter because you don't like me back. Because you nor anyone else would ever love me. I'm just the one who tells the jokes, who is afraid of everything. Nya dumped me. She knew I'm not worth it-"

He was cut off by Kai pressing his lips against his own. It was short and sweet, but it helped to shut him up. "Motormouth," Kai whispered, pulling Jay back into a hug.

The holder of electricity could feel the flower ease itself away, the pain still there, but not nearly as bad. "Kai..."

"I love you too."

The man that Jay assumed was Iron Baron yelled in frustration. "That wasn't fun at all! Get them!" People from the crowd began to jump down into the arena. Cole jumped down also, Wu by his side, going straight to protect the two.

"Odd, you aren't going to battle Kai?" Cole asked, readying himself.

"Sorry," He protested, standing up, his hands catching on fire. "Never thought that I would be doing this. But, then again, I never expect anything that actually happens to us to actually happen." He anxiously laughed.

The elemental master of earth looked back to Jay. "Are you alright, buddy?" No response. "That's a no." Cole grimaced. "As soon as we crush em, we need to get Jay out of here and save Zane."

"No need." Zane jumped into the arena, his hands still cuffed. "But, I may need a little help with this." Cole pried the cuffs off with a sharp stone while Kai did his best to fend the Dragon Hunters off. Soon enough, all three of them were fighting to protect Jay. "Cole, may I suggest something?"

"Ask away." The earth ninja mumbled, batting someone away with a boulder.

"Would you be able to 'fly' us out of here on a rock? It doesn't sound too terrible or hard."

Cole nodded, pulling a rock off the side of the arena, prompting the others to get on, Kai picking up the passed out Jay. The ninja of earth did his best to fly them out, getting over the wall and back into the streets below. They landed hard, Black having to be supported by White, Red holding Blue, and Wu landing almost perfectly.

"Now, how are we going to get back?" Kai asked, mind wandering.

Cole looked over, opening his mouth to speak, but Wu said it first. "The dragon hunters were talking about 'Golden Armour' that controlled the Firstbourne- mother of all dragons. We can use it to get back to Ninjago."

"Then?" Kai prompted.

"We run, now." Zane looked back to see the Dragon Hunters gaining on them.

* * *

They were somewhat far away, undetected. Running was heard, but they had hidden at one point, losing the majority of the hunters. They were around a campfire, mulling over previous events of the day, especially when Jay and Kai had confessed. They talked about not only that, but also about what they were going to do as well.

Cole was sitting with Wu, talking to him quietly, and Zane was working on something. Jay was laying against Kai, almost falling asleep. Kai was poking the fire with a stick, not getting any closer than he was at that point, not wanting to wake Jay.

Little did they know that they needed to keep faith, and maybe, just maybe she was right behind them.

* * *

 **Okay, that's the end! As I dont want to write out all of season 9, just imagine that it goes on like it should, just with more plasma. ^^**


End file.
